Erin Brockovich Essays - Pacific Gas And Electric Company

Erin Brockovich The movie "Erin Brockovich" is based on a true story that happened in California during the year 1993. Julia Roberts wonderfully portrays Erin Brockovich as a single mother that is struggling to make ends meet. She is in a car accident and seeks legal help from Ed Masry and his law firm. After losing her court case, partially due to her foul mouth, Erin goes to work for Ed Masry filing papers as a simple job. Brockovich becomes curious about a particular case when she finds medical records in the same file as real estate matters. The case, which was a pro bono case for the law firm, involved Roberta Walker who lived near an industrial facility operated by Pacific Gas Electric (PGE) in a small town called Hinkley in California's the Mojave Desert. PGE was offering to buy her house at "fair market value," but Ms. Walker and her family were suffering from a variety of health issues and she did not want to sell. The legal files showed ongoing correspondence between PGE and Ms. Walke r about her medical conditions. The buy-out offer was unusual in that it was unsolicited and PGE was also offering to pay for doctor visits for her whole family. Erin Brockovich began digging through the county water board files to gather more information. The first paper Erin came across in the water board files was a notification by PGE to their plant neighbors informing the community that their facility was releasing chromium into the local water supply. PGE was issued Cleanup and Abatement Order No. 6-87-160 given by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. This order stated that the company must clean up past waste discharges of hexavalent chromium at the Hinkley facility. Eventually, Erin learns that most of the people living near the PGE Hinckley plant are suffering from a range of health problems such as various forms of cancer, persistent nose bleeds, and constant headaches. Erin also discovers vital details that indicate that the illnesses are consistent with exposure to hexavalent chromium, the same material the company was emitting. This form of chromium was used in the facility to prevent corrosion of its water-cooling system. Unfortunately, this cancer-causing product leaked into the water table via the unlined water retention ponds of the plant thus contaminating the water in the Hinkley area. The people and animals that consumed the water were injured by the hexavalent chromium. Erin finds the direct link to the illnesses and the company through the local drinking water. The film explores many legal issues such as court procedures, alternative dispute resolutions, torts, and the ethics and business decision making of PGE. The torts brought by the injured parties in the film alleged that PGE ruined their health and devalued the land that they owned due to contaminated water. As a result of all the investigative work that Erin did, Ed Masry concedes that there is substantial evidence to link PGE to a liability and makes the decision to proceed legally on behalf of the Hinkley community. The legal team canvassed the community for victims affected by the chromium. Erin and Ed Masry found a total of 634 affected victims and proceeded to file a lawsuit suit against PGE for poisoning the Hinkley water supply. They purported that their chronic exposure to hexavalent chromium through the contaminated water supply damaged their health and left them susceptible to cancer and other maladies. The PGE Hinkley location was a gas compression facility. During operation, compression of gas generates extreme heat. The compressors must be cooled to keep them running. PGE used chromium-6 (hexavalent chromium) in the water cooling towers as a corrosion inhibitor. Hexavalent chromium is toxic to humans and animals. The wastewater from the cooling towers was sent out to the unlined retention ponds. Over the years the hexavalent chromium leached into the water table and eventually into the public's water wells. There was a plume of contamination that extended one-mile north of the plant which animals and humans both breathed into their lungs as well as consumed poisoned water from the groundwater supply. PGE told the Hinckley residents that non-hazardous chromium-3 was utilized in their cooling towers. Because

The Role of the Hippocampus in Learning and Memory essays

The Role of the Hippocampus in Learning and Memory essays The role of the hippocampus in learning and memory has been examined for many years. Studies have used rats, monkeys, and other animals and given them a variety of lesions to the hippocampus and other parts of the brain. These were followed by a variety of tests that involved learning and memory. Although most of the tests showed a correlation between injury to the hippocampus and affliction to learning and memory, the extent of the testing and the detail to which is has been studied gives a much larger picture of the possibilities for human comparison. Olton, D.S. rats. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behaviour Processes, 2(2), Olton and Samuelson completed six experiments for their study of rats and spatial memory. All experiments used a radial arm maze for testing. The first three involved placing the rats in the maze to explore and search for food. A variety of changes were made in each experiment to test spatial memory. The results of these tests showed that one the rats began to run into the arms of the maze, changes had no effect on the accuracy of choice. Experiment four was concerned with the memory element of which arm had been chosen previously. The authors made changes in the maze, and they studied the data from a number of angles. The rats memory processes while problem solving was studied. Experiment five increased the number of choices, resulting in a reduction in accuracy, and experiment six tested the sequence of changes made in the maze and whether the rats could quickly recover choice accuracy. Overall results show that rats can remember which arm of the maze they have already chosen, but this is affected by both the increase in the number of choices and the length of time between repetitions of choices. The rats treated each arm as a separate space and stored the information in the same manner. ...

American History from 1607 to 1865 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

American History from 1607 to 1865 - Essay Example Together they slowly built a country together. Some of the principal industries at time were tobacco and shipbuilding. As the colonies grew more powerful, they chafed at the heavy hand that ruled them from London. A little known fact is that the American colonists who fought the British during the Revolutionary War were not always dramatically opposed against the British who ruled over them. Some admired the British. During the Revolutionary War, which was led by George Washington, there were opportunities to come to terms, although most of these opportunities occurred at the beginning of the war. Before the time when New York fell to the British, it might have been possible for the British and the American sides agree on a peace that would have kept the Americans under British Rule. However, after this seminal battle, the two opponents were too entrenched in their respective positions to reach an agreement. Both sides were too polarized and seen too much hardship. Throughout the con flict, the British failed to conceive that the colonists only wanted respect and more autonomy. By denying this reasonable request, the British forced the Americans to take drastic action against them. It didn’t have to be this way. ... Writing to a friend, John Adams once said: There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real Liberty. And this public Passion must be Superior to all private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest connections, when they Stand in Competition with the Rights of society. (Rahe, 23) The years that followed the founding were amazing. The country grew in population, power, and wealth. The size of the country grew and more states joined. Most people would find it hard to argue that the changes between 1790 and 1860 were not some of the most impressive in the history of the United States. One of the key elements of the growth that occurred as this time was rapid industrialization. Novel technologies like the cotton gin and the steam engine permitted work to be completed in any even faster fashion than before. All across the land, factories began to sprout up like mushrooms. The country began to shift away from a resource based economy that included farming and agriculture, and began to be characterized by a much more diverse economy that was sending goods all over the world. Throughout it all Americans debated what system of government they should have. They often looked back to the words of Thomas Jefferson: Two political Sects have arisen within the U. S. the one believing that the executive is the branch of our government which the most needs support; the other that like the analogous branch in the English Government, it is already too strong for the republican parts of the

The role of retailer branding strategies in Singapore Research Paper

The role of retailer branding strategies in Singapore - Research Paper Example Product and brand are terms that are related because of several properties shared by them. Brand relies on the nature of the product or service. These attributes when used to market the product distinguishes it from its competitors, in the market, gives birth to Brand. Brand is linked with the product by relaying the attributes and character of the product. Additionally the characteristic of a product used to distinguish it from other product is termed as a brand. This means that the attributes associated with the product in terms of the characteristics of the product gives rise to brand. A brand deals with the identity of the product, which enables it to be distinguished from other products (Finskud, 2009, p. 34). A product currently may mean a good with physical characteristics or service or intangible goods such as software or algorithm. Therefore, a product can be described as a product, service or intangible good such as software that a firm produces and use it to generate incom e. Companies like Microsoft Corporation deal exclusively with software as their end product. Such software like Microsoft office 2010 is, therefore, a product of Microsoft Corporation. Brand deals specifically with the characters that distinguish the product in the market. It is the impression that surrounds the product. A brand can be categorized as a â€Å"strong brand† if it has several qualities or characters associated with strong brands (Finskud, 2009, p. 198)... Branding is vital in marketing because it enables the sales of all the company’s range of products. The success of many companies such as; Coca Cola, Adidas and Nike among other brands are based on use of brand image creation. Therefore, companies must be ready to venture in branding to be able to achieve success. Retailer branding in Singapore Retail branding is used by giant supermarkets in ensuring that the product sales are improved and outpace competition from other supermarket. The success is based on the ability to create a powerful strong brand. A strong brand is characterized by the ability to drive the shareholder value; therefore, it is managed by brand marketers who ensure an active buy-in from all stakeholders. The brand is valued in financial terms and is classified as an asset to the company during the calculation of profits and loss (Finskud, 2009, p. 45). As part of the organization, it is viewed as a part of the organization and covers a variety of business d imension. Additionally, customers are ready to pay consistently a higher price for the brand while ignoring the competing product or service. As a result of the strong affiliation to the brand, customers want to associate with the brand, it qualities, values and personality. Association with the brand gives rise to loyalty to the brand. Additionally, customers are ready to pay consistently a higher price for the brand while ignoring the competing product or service. As a result of the strong affiliation to the brand, customers want to associate with the brand, it qualities, values and personality. Association with the brand gives rise to loyalty to the brand. Due to the above characteristics the brand becomes a trademark protected by the firm and

To See isn’t to Belong but to Touch is to Feel Essay Example for Free

To See isn’t to Belong but to Touch is to Feel Essay The Cathedral is a very interesting short story that defines people and places.   Raymond Carver demonstrated how spiritual blindness can make a person loose his sense of place and ultimately barricades a person sense of touch.   There could be places where two or more people live or stay close to one another but are really out of touch because they have set walls in between.   This ignorance has made people unable to see what is beyond in everything with their normal eyesight in which the author of the short story manifested in the beginning. Spiritual blindness leads to lack of communication or understanding.   This is the state of Bub the narrator when he first met Robert who is blind, a long time friend of his wife.   Robert serves as the story keeper of the narrator’s wife whose name was never mentioned but was simply called my wife by Bub and my dear to him. The narrator’s voice was craftily sculptured by the pen of the writer; it described his skepticism towards the blind friend of his wife and his easy going relationship with his wife.   The tone of the story tells about a marriage that is going towards a period of tepidity despite to the woman it is already a marriage of a second chance for happiness.   The tones used by the writer to describe the blind man prefigured a strong man that despite of his handicap, Robert is a man who made his touch more powerful than his eyes. The voices even expressed how fruitless it was to described a thing when the eye that can see can not comprehend what it sees that is when the narrator finally commented â€Å"I’m not doing so good, am I (Carver, 1983)?†Ã‚   But ironically was able to explain how the blind man understood things when he began to asked if the paintings are made of fresco paints and that cathedrals needs hundred of workers who would never lived to see their work completed because it takes a hundred years for it to be built. Robert explained to Bub that a lifetime is not enough to learn everything by saying that â€Å"they’re no different from the rest of us, right (Carver, 1983)?† The story tells about a man who learned to live well without having the gift of sight of which many people are incapable of doing.   Many people today are like Bub who are afraid to live without their necessities in life and are even unhappy in spite of what they have. Bub is a physically complete person, good natured but do not possess a deep character because of his insensitivity towards the needs of others.   Though he possesses his youth and physical attributes he was an incomplete person and that search led him to use cocaine simply because he wanted more but just cannot get or know where to take it in spite of the presence of a wife.   The woman on the other hand is the feminine version of humanity who seeks to be nurtured and loved but still was taken for granted by her husband.   Her longing to belong was the reason she was able to keep that good friendship with Robert which according to his husband was just a form of recreation or diversion or a life that we call simply fleeting away. The climax of the story was when Bub’s hand was touched by Robert while sketching the figures of the cathedral as he sees them on the television screen. Bub’s hand was able to define the lines and the blind man was able to see through those strokes.   However, that exchange of motion taught Bub to see without staring and made him realized his sense of place by simply feeling he was on it as he is being guided by another.   He finally felt that he is with someone and that experience made him see without looking. Finally, Bub learned from Robert how to feel through those same hands that was able to accompany Beulah to her deathbed and touched the face of his wife with an elegant tenderness.   The handicap in Carver’s story was able to prove to the world the importance of touch because the man who feels and knew how to reciprocate that sense makes a person real, strong and lovable.   Craver’s short story shows a man of every man in modern times, unmindful as long as he does his own thing and that solitude separates him from the rest so he see without seeing and that blindness forbade him to touch and feel. By the end of the story the blind man succeeded in guiding Bub to learn about himself and about human communication as Robert reached for his hand so he too can learn how a cathedral really looks (Donley, 1995).   Bub finally realized his sense of place with an eyes closed when he exclaimed at the end that â€Å"It was like nothing in my life up to now (Carver, 1983).†   References Carver, R. (1983). Cathedral [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 19 April 2008, from http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/cinichol/GovSchool/Cathedral2.htm Donley, C. (1995). Carver, Raymond :   Cathedral [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 19 April 2008, from http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=viewannid=744

It’s Time to Crack Down on Police Brutality Essay -- Argumentative Per

It’s Time to Crack Down on Police Brutality   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Police brutality has become a widespread and persistent problem in the United States.   Police brutality occurs when a law enforcement officers use excessive or unlawful force while on or off duty.   "Established: A Pattern of Abuse" is an article in The Humanist, written by Barbara Dority.   She states, "Thousands of individual complaints are reported each year and local authorities pay out millions of dollars to vicitms in damages and lawsuits" (5).   Dority also describes some of the types of abuse that officers have done.   "[They] have beaten and shot unresisting suspects; they have misused batons, chemicals sprays, and electro-shock weapons; [and] they have injured or killed people by placing them in dangerous restraint holds" (5).   There have been many cases throughout the country where police officers have been far too brutal and someone has been injured or killed.   There have been many hundreds of cases like this and many peop le are wondering when it will end or even if it will end.   Most citizens of the United States agree that it is wrong and needs to be reduced if not eliminated.   So it all comes down to one question: what can be done about it?   Unfortunately, prosecution has not been sufficiently effective in stopping the brutality.   Police forces throughout the U.S. should be made more accountable for their actions. The greatest problem that has developed from police brutality is that the guilty officers are not punished, which leads to another incident of abuse.   Authorities should give more effective punishment to officers who abuse citizens.   Such punishment would help prevent abuse from happening again and again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In an anonymous Economist article c... ...gainst New York cops since 1993, only 180 officers have been disciplined, most of them with just a lecture or the loss of a vacation day" (26).   Officers need to be treated like citizens when it comes to that type of crime.   They should be sent to jail and just saying sorry should not let them off the hook.   They may be law officers, but they are not gods and they should have to face the consequences of their actions as all good citizens must.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sources Cited    Dority, Barbara.   "Established: A Pattern of Abuse."   The Humanist. 59.1 (Jan. 1999):5. Lacayo, Richard.   "Good Cop, Bad Cop."   Time.   150.9 (1 Sept. 1997):26-31. Lewis, Edward.   " Policing the Police."   Essence.   28.7 (Nov. 1997):14. Anonymous.   "Excessive Force."   The Economist 348.8076 (11 July 1998): 32.   

Love for Cooking Essay

To Be Graded Goal: In this paper I tried to open to different ideas to cooking opposed to giving directions about how to cook. I tried to provide each reason with two examples to give readers a better understanding about what food can really be about. Evaluation: I feel like I did good on the overview on covering all the basics on cooking to where it’s understandable and relateable opposed to writing is as a recipe or directions list that most people would think cooking is about. Cooking a satisfying dish has three aspects. The first aspect that is usually the most important is eating with the eyes. An example is how the dish is plated, how it smells, and how appealing and appetizing it looks to the eye. Another example that compares to the first example is that if food is plated sloppy or looks and smells unappetizing, it generally doesn’t catch peoples attention. A second aspect that relates to the first aspect is using fresh ingredients. Using fresh ingredients means a healthier meal, and also getting natural vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and ect. Another example is using fresh food opposed to processed food, because everyone wants to knows what they’re eating. One last aspect is making the dish taste fantastic. A dish that tastes good has people eating more of it, even though it might not be good for them to over-stuff. Another reason is people asking for the recipe or asking the chef to prepare their meals boost confidence in the chef knowing she made a good meal for everyone. One thing that will always remain is that feeling of providing something delicious for the community that has them cominging back and a sense of happiness and successfullnes in a chef.